Where’d you move?
I moved to a tiny neighborhood called Jack London Square in Oakland. Yes, it’s named for that guy that wrote about the gold rush. I’ve only been here 3 months but I really like it so far. Previously, I lived in Palo Alto for 5 years, then about 2 years in the Lower Pac Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, but had never really spent much time in the East Bay. I had sort of heard that people were moving from SF to Oakland, but didn’t really have a reason to check out the neighborhood until a few people I know moved here.

I used to live in the Mission, and going from 24th+Mission to SOMA is about comparable to my current commute. However, I occasionally do have the morbid fear that there’ll be an earthquake while I’m underwater in the train.

Where’s all the good food?
Right now, the Uptown neighborhood is opening the most new/amazing restaurants, where you can eat before you go to the Fox Theater or the Paramount for a show. Jack London Square has great food as well – there’s an eclectic mix of fancy pizza shops, vegan, and southern. A quick walk into Chinatown provides an endless supply of cheap eats, and the Oakland Chinatown is huge – about 2x the size of the city’s, without the tourist stuff.

A quick map search shows you where all the food is- pretty much in the Broadway/Telegraph corridor, but Rockridge, Temescal, and Grand Lake do well too.

Doesn’t Oakland have a ton of crime?Crime was one of my top concerns moving to Oakland, but if the spectrum in San Francisco is aggressive/disturbed people in the Tenderloin to the nicest part of Presidio Heights, I think Oakland is about the same. You wouldn’t want to walk around Market St at 3am and you wouldn’t want to do that on Broadway in Oakland either. (Palo Alto / Menlo Park / Atherton are on a whole other planet, of course)

The biggest lesson I’ve learned from exploring the long list of East Bay neighborhoods is that Oakland is very diverse, and while the crime factor is a big one, it’s an acute problem for some neighborhoods and less of a problem for others. So, it all depends (just like SF, btw).

Houses in the Oakland Hills look like the kind of fancy houses you’d see while driving on 280 in the peninsula. Some neighborhoods like Rockridge, Grand Lake, and Adams Point are small and upscale, not unlike University Ave in Palo Alto. Uptown/Downtown feels like Market Street in San Francisco, but inexplicably cleaner. My new neighborhood, Jack London Square, feels a bit like South Beach in SOMA.

On the other hand, neighborhoods in deep East Oakland don’t feel very safe. That’s where you can find the car sideshows on YouTube.

Is it cheaper to live there?For now, buying or renting seems to be about 50-75% the cost of San Francisco. Maybe as low as 30% if you are adventurous.

Is Oakland really warmer than San Francisco?
Yep. Sort of like the peninsula, up to 10 degrees warmer. Sometimes I miss the fog.

Interestingly enough, the density of tech in Oakland is still relatively low. Cafes aren’t full of tech bros with terminal open. Coworking spaces are more likely to be nonprofits, writers, and sales, rather than unpronounceable names of startups. I’m sure a bit of this might change over time, and there’s been rumors of one of the big cos taking over the old Sears building in downtown.

What’s the best way to visit Oakland?
The first step is to come out here by car/BART/ferry and check it out. I’d encourage you to do it, I think you’ll be surprised by how nice it is. And as I said above, if you’re interested in attending a casual get-together in the new neighborhood, or if you already live around here, just sign up on this mailing list and I’ll post some future updates.